Typical vehicle door hinges exhibit a common feature or characteristic. The hinges do not hold the door of the vehicle partially open while occupants are entering and exiting the vehicle. When the vehicle is parked or idling on a sloping surface, the door must be held open manually. Typically, the cab doors of trucks, when opened, cannot be restrained in any intermediate position. When fully opened, such cab doors contact the body of the truck thereby providing the potential for damage to the truck body.
For service and maintenance purposes, it is obviously advantageous to be able to open the cab door fully, exposing the working parts of the hinge assembly. However, for user convenience in entering and exiting the vehicle, and for damage minimization, it would be advantageous to provide a hinge assembly which can be opened and restrained at one or more predetermined intermediate open positions as well as opened fully.
It is the principle object of the present invention to provide such a hinge assembly.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a hinge assembly having the foregoing characteristic that is also simple to operate and easy and economical to manufacture.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a hinge assembly having the foregoing characteristics that can be readily adapted for use in hinge assemblies which do not have the foregoing characteristics.
There are other objects and advantages of the present invention, and those will become apparent upon reading the following description in light of the accompanying drawing.